Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic transmission for a vehicle.
Description of Related Art
Recent increases in oil prices are triggering stiff competition in enhancing fuel consumption of a vehicle.
In this sense, research on an automatic transmission has been performed to simultaneously provide better drivability and fuel consumption by achieving more shift stages.
However, in order to achieve more shift stages for an automatic transmission, the number of parts is typically increased, which may deteriorate installability and/or power flow efficiency and may increase production cost, and weight.
Therefore, in order to maximally enhance fuel consumption of an automatic transmission having more shift stages, it is important for better efficiency to be derived from a smaller number of parts.
In this respect, an eight-speed automatic transmission has been recently introduced, and a planetary gear train for an automatic transmission enabling more shift stages is under investigation.
An automatic transmission of eight or more shift-stages typically includes three to four planetary gear sets and five to six control elements (frictional elements), and may easily become lengthy, thereby deteriorating installability.
In this regard, disposing planetary gear sets in parallel or employing dog clutches instead of wet-type control elements is sometimes attempted. However, such an arrangement may not be widely applicable, and using dog clutches may easily deteriorate shift-feel.
In addition, a recent eight-speed automatic transmission typically shows a gear ratio span in a level of 6.5 to 7.5, which may require improvement for better fuel consumption.
Thus, shortening a length of an automatic transmission without deteriorating performance will be beneficial.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.